4 Serious Ways Your Health Declines When You Can"t Get Your Sleep

 

Sleep is something that everyone needs. It’s as essential to living as breathing, drinking and eating.

The problem is that it’s one of the easiest things to forgo. Busy work schedules, nightmares and troubled thoughts are just three of the things that can prevent you from sleeping in a laundry list that is miles long.

If you currently underestimate the importance of sleep, then you should take a look at the following four ways that a lack of sleep can seriously affect your health.

 

1. Sleeplessness Slows Down Your Mental Faculties

When you don’t get enough sleep, there is a fog that settles on your brain. It gets harder to work, things become less enjoyable, and solutions seem harder to grasp as the hours pass.

A lack of sleep causes drowsiness, which in turn results in a delayed mental reaction. You may have trouble thinking, planning or deciding on anything but when your next rest will be.

 

2. Lack of Sleep Can Put You at Risk for Serious Problems

People who can’t get enough sleep are putting themselves at a higher risk for conditions like heart disease, diabetes and stroke. One estimate even goes as far as to say that individuals with sleeping disorders have at least one other serious health condition.

 

3. Unrestful Sleep Can Make You Gain Weight

People who have issues with sleeping due to conditions like sleep apnea tend to weigh more. There is a causal link between their unrestful sleep and their heavier bodies, as researchers have found that Ghrelin, a chemical that stimulates satiety in the brain, is produced during restful sleep.

A lack of sleep can result in less Ghrelin and more weight, and more weight can also lead to sleep apnea and even less sleep. Companies like CPAPMan have created devices that help pump air into your lungs while you sleep to combat sleep apnea and its associated risks.

 

4. Too Little Sleep Could Kill You

British researchers conducted a study amongst servants who had cut their sleeping hours from seven to five or less. What they found is that those who had decreased their time for sleeping had nearly double the chances of dying.

While there are a myriad of reasons behind why this is so, the best way to summarize it pertains to another statistic this study found: lack of sleep doubled a person’s chances to develop heart disease.

 

Sleep is Invaluable

While there are many causes for a lack of sleep and just as many controversies arguing what purpose sleep serves in an individual’s life, one thing is clear: everyone needs their fair share of restful slumber.

Without sleep, the serious health effects that could seriously hinder your life.

The good news is that finding a restful night’s sleep on a regular basis is becoming more readily available with an increased understanding of what sleep does and what processes might interrupt it.

Categories: cpap, Diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, sleep apnea, stroke, weight gain

One for the Boys: Men who Eat Chocolate Reduce Stroke Risk

Although it’s no friend to your waistline, chocolate always seems like a friend to your emotional wellness. However, now men may be able to use the cocoa-y, sugary goodness to prevent a major health concern. This is according to a new large study from Sweden, which has found that simply eating one chocolate bar per week may help men to reduce their risk of having a stroke by about one-sixth.

This appetising conclusion was published this week in the journal Neurology by researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute. For the study, which was the first in a long line of recent studies on the potential heart and vascular benefits of chocolate to look specifically at men, the team spent 10 years following more than 37,000 men between the ages of 45 and 79. The results of the study revealed that men who at the most chocolate a week – roughly 2.2 ounces – were 17% less likely to have a stroke than the participants who ate little or no chocolate during than time span.

The researchers then pooled their data with that from four previous studies – including a near-identical 2011 study they conducted in women – in order to bolster their findings. The combined data, when re-analysed, came out with a similar result: men and women who ate the most chocolate had a 19% lower risk of stroke compared to those who ate the least. Jonathan Friedman, MD, a neurosurgeon at the Texas A&M Health Science Centre College of Medicine, in Bryan–College Station, who was not involved in the research, commented, ‘This was a meaningful reduction in stroke risk, and the results seem to be valid given the high number of patients.’

This study, which was funded by a Swedish research council, adds to a growing body of evidence that shows chocolate, or rather cocoa, to have some heart-healthy properties. In cocoa there are compounds known as flavonoids, which have been proven to lower your blood pressure, increase your levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, and improve the function of your arteries. Being a type of antioxidant, flavonoids can also prevent major health concerns, and may thin your blood and prevent it from clotting. This can help to stave off heart attacks and strokes.

However, the study authors are quick to point out that there are other substances in chocolate – or certain traits associated with chocolate lovers, which is more likely — that could just as easily explain the findings. In the chocolate lovers group, participants tended to be better educated and healthier overall than their peers, being less likely to smoke, have high blood pressure or have the heart-rate abnormality known as atrial fibrillation, which is a major risk factor for stroke. The researchers carefully controlled for these and other health measures, but Pierre Fayad, MD, a professor of neurological sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha, notes that the link between chocolate consumption and strokes can possibly be explained by health or lifestyle differences that went undetected.  ‘This association could also be due to the fact that [chocolate eaters] are healthier people,’ he adds.

While the new study adds to a wealth of research that hails the health benefits of chocolate, don’t go thinking that your doctor is going to start giving you different advice about your cardiovascular health. Fayad comments that following a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and treating known risk factors such as high blood pressure will all have a bigger impact on stroke risk than how much chocolate you consume. Plus, Friedman concludes, ‘Eating five chocolate bars a week might be worse for you in terms of obesity than it is good for you in terms of stroke risk.’

Categories: blood pressure, chocolate, chocolate lovers, high blood, major health, Research, risk, stroke, stroke risk, study

Could Brain Stents Support Stroke Patients?

A new study suggests that certain stroke patients could benefit from angioplasty and the placement of brain stents to open the arteries.The finding of this most recent study has a focus on ischemic strokes, which are attacks that occur when the blood flow to the brain is blocked, usually by a fatty deposit, leading to blood flow stopping in that area. In brain angioplasty, a balloon-tipped catheter is guided to the area of the blockage and then the balloon is inflated to re-open the blocked vessel. A stent, a mesh tube, is then inserted so that the vessel remains open and the balloon is deflated. In the study, 131 ischemic stroke patients in the Czech Republic were analysed, with an average age of 66. 75 percent of the patients were given a clot-busting drug whereas the rest were not eligible and were given nothing. Because of these limitations, many ischemic stroke patients had no treatments at all.

However, of the patients who received the clot-busting drug, 35 percent of them had a positive outcome within three months after their stroke. Among those patients in which the drug failed to re-open the artery, less than half underwent the brain angioplasty and stent replacement. The rest had no treatment at all. Among the patients who didn’t receive the drug, 31 went on to have an angioplasty and stenting, and 25 had no further treatment. There were favourable outcomes in 45 percent of those who had the stenting and angioplasty.

For patients with this type of blockage, who can’t receive the drug that could benefit them, re-opening the vessel with stents is considered far more beneficial than having no further therapy, according to researchers. Two experts in the US say that the usefuleness of this approach is still being debated, but it offers hope for those undergoing these problems. DR Keith Siller is the medical director for the Comprehensive Stroke Care Centre in NYU Langone Medical Centre, in New York City. He has claimed that although the Czech study clearly found a real benefit to patients who had an ischemic stroke, another trial which is referred to by the acronym SAMMPRIS concluded that patients with a recent stroke from long-standing blockages in the brain arteries had a worse outcome from angioplasty and stenting than those using normal medications, such as aspirin and statin when combined with aggressive risk-factor modification, such as diet and exercise.

 

However, Siller stated that the Czech trial used similar stents but focused on a different and less easily managed subset of patients, who were already kown to have the worst outcomes if their arteries remained blocked. He believes that these patients the angioplasty and stenting led to a far better clinical outcome and less hemorrhagic complications with results that were far superior to the patients in SAMMPRIS. Siller claims that the benefits for angioplasty and stenting could play an important role for worst-case patients, but there is still little proof in less urgent cases where the goal is simply to limit it happening again. Based on this study, the stenting process in the acute stroke setting could well be an option for patients who have contraindications for clot-busting drugs, according to DR Rafael Ortiz who is the director for the Centre fro Stroke and Neuro-Endovascular Surgery and Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Further studies and more in-depth information needs to take place in order to make final recommendations about the safety of the therapy in other patients.

Categories: blood flow, Brain, brain angioplasty, brain stents, busting drug, clot busting, ischemic stroke, new study, Patients, stroke, stroke patients, york city

New Heart Health Devices Take on Current Therapies

Thrombectomy devices have been shown, by several recent trials, to help improve your wellbeing in the case of ischemic stroke, but financial coverage for this device hangs in the balance. This is according to an editorial in the journal Stroke, which argues that certain patients should be reimbursed for the use of the device if IV therapy should not be used because it may be harmful to their wellness.

On behalf of the Interventional Management of Stroke (IMS) III executive committee, Joseph P. Broderick, MD, and Thomas A. Tomsick, MD, wrote, ‘Insurance companies in the US are currently considering whether the data from [the IMS III and SYNTHESIS trials] justify withdrawal of reimbursement for thrombectomy devices for all ischemic stroke patients, including those patients who arrive within the tPA treatment window but who are ineligible for IV tPA.’

The concern is that the original large trials didn’t show that the devices are any better than tPA for endovascular therapy, but smaller studies have since been done with many new-generation thrombectomy devices and have shown good results. The writers assert that if you were to arrive within the 4.5 hour window when IV tPA is beneficial, but have contraindications for IV therapy (meaning that you have a condition or factor that serves as a reason to withhold the medical treatment) the use of thrombectomy devices for you should be reimbursed.

However, another heart health device, this time designed to heal and repair arteries, was deemed to be just as beneficial as pre-existing treatments. This is according to German researchers, who found that a novel stent which promotes early neointimal stent strut coverage, and reduces late lumen loss, restenosis, and the need for reintervention, was found to be non-inferior to a contemporary drug-eluting stent.

Michael Haude, MD, of the Medical Clinic I, Lukaskrankenhaus in Neuss, Germany, and colleagues wrote in the April issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, that their ‘results are in line with the expected capture of circulating endothelial progenitor cells by the CD34 antibody [on the Combo stent], creating a fast and complete layer of cells leading to the covering of the stent struts’.

New Heart Health Devices Take on Current Therapies

Categories: Research, stroke, Thrombectomy devices

Study Reveals Brain Can Protect Itself from Stroke Damage

The brain may be able to protect itself from the damage caused by a stroke, according to new research.

The team from Oxford University have revealed that an inbuilt biological mechanism called “endogenous neuroprotection” and identified for the first time, keeps the brain cells alive and helps the brain protect itself against further damage when a stroke occurs.

Their findings could help bring changes in the treatment of patients who have suffered a stroke and also offers a potential breakthrough in preventing neurodegenerative diseases.

Reporting in the journal Nature Medicine, the study unveils the discovery of the brain’s in-built form of neuroprotection, calling it endogenous protection. They turned back the clock to make their discovery, using research first published in 1926 that showed the neurons in the part of the brain that controls memory, can survive without oxygen while others in other parts of the hippocampus perish when denied oxygen.

When a person suffers a stroke, the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, depriving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients. Those cells begin to die unless the stroke victim is treated quickly. Usually this involves a brain scan in hospital and drug treatment to get the blood flow restarted. The quicker this can happen, the less damage there is likely to be to the brain cells.

The Oxford team used rats to examine and understand how cells die when denied oxygen and glucose. What they discovered is that a specific protein called hamartin keeps those cells starved of oxygen and glucose alive. Hamartin isn’t present in the other areas of the hippocampus so stimulating production of hamartin can provide more protection for the brains cells.

Their findings pave the way for potential drug developments that could mimic the effects of hamartin and so offer stroke victims greater protection from brain cell damage.

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Study Reveals Brain Can Protect Itself from Stroke Damage

Categories: Brain, endogenous neuroprotection, stroke